Selecting Rep Ranges In The Gym

     Most people that lift weights slog away doing the same old repetition (rep) ranges that they have been doing for years without stopping to think about exactly why they train the way they do. I have seen Glasgow personal trainers who continue to prescribe the same old 10 reps per set sessions without any thought as to why they are doing it. The organisation of a good training programme is quite complicated so here is a general overview or how to choose a rep range that suits your goals.

Rep ranges are all about intensity which is the degree of force your muscles are exerting with 100% of available force being the most intense effort you can make. Anything less than this level is sub maximal effort and is expressed as a percentage (eg, 60% intensity).

Volume, the quantity of work done, is the other end of the sliding scale. You can work with high intensity or high volume but not both at the same time. Simply put if the most you can lift once in an exercise is 100kg then 10 sets of 10 reps at 100kg on that exercise is impossible. To do that volume of work you would have to lower the intensity considerably.

The higher the intensity you work at the greater the strength you will develop so if you want to become stronger you should focus on using 1 to 5 reps. When training with low reps you have to allow longer recovery time between sets to make sure your body is ready for another high intensity effort before you try it. Low rep range training makes you stronger by increasing the activation of muscles, allowing nerves to as much muscle fibres as possible.

If you are more concerned with increasing muscle size you should choose a higher rep range of about 6 to 12 reps. This necessitates lower loads but also allows you to work with shorter rests between sets. Mid rep ranges cause microscopic damage within the muscle which is repaired making the fibres bigger than they were before.

If you are just concerned with general health and wellbeing and want a "catch all" rep range that will give you good results for weight loss, strength increase and improving body composition you should build your training plan around 4 to 6 reps. This is especially effective if combined with whole body resistance training circuits. To get the best possible physique you will need to use higher and lower reps with appropriate loads from time to time but 4 to 6 reps should be the base range you use most often. This kind of training is about as different as you can get from the generic 3 sets of 10, body part training you see most people wasting time on in corporate gyms. If you want a body that looks better than everyone else's you can't train the same way they do.

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